Undetermined
by Rixer
Summary: Ethan's POV. Filling in the blank's of Ethan's Life, all the way through.  Disclaimer: I do not own any of Percy Jackson and the Olympians. It all belongs to its respective owners.
1. The Life

Chapter One

The Life

The girl had looked innocent at first sight. She was incredibly beautiful, just sitting there at the table in the coffee shop. I saw her as he was passing the window, concealing a hotdog that he'd just stolen from a nearby vendor. I couldn't resist a closer look. So I went in the coffee shop, and leaned against a wall, studying the girl. She had long, blond hair, brown eyes, and she was wearing a pink sweatshirt a few sizes too small for her, with a short denim skirt. She looked about my age. I'd seen lots of pretty girls since I arrived in New York, but she was by far the prettiest.

I wanted to talk to her. I thought for a couple of minutes, trying to figure out how to approach her. I didn't notice her get up and start to leave until the bell on the door of the coffee shop rung. I jumped and started to follow her after a moment's hesitation. The girl turned off into a dark alleyway. I followed behind her a couple of seconds later. She had stopped and was staring at me as I entered the alleyway.

She had an amused look on her face.

"Can I help you?" she asked.

"I, um...live down here. Uh, just past this alleyway I mean," I replied awkwardly and started to walk away, my hands shoved in my pockets.

"Are you sure that's why you came back here?" the girl asked, closing in on me slowly. She pushed me up against the wall gently and slid her fingers slowly down his cheek. Her lips met his and they kissed for a second. She pulled back slowly, and I flinched when I saw the look on her face. She had a twisted grin and her eyes were intense.

"Now for your real treat," she said menacingly. She began to change, her beautiful blond hair turning to flames, one of her legs changed to brass and the other morphing into a donkey's. Her hands changed to claws and she lunged at me, aiming for my throat. I jumped back quickly and ran around the corner of the alley. Good thing I had always been quick on my feet. I sprinted as hard as I could for a few minutes, looking over my shoulder every once in a while to see if I had lost the strange creature. She was still following me. People looked at me and back at the thing chasing me and some of them smiled, some of them sighed as if saying "I remember when I did that".

What the hell was wrong with them! A flaming demon was chasing me, and they were pretending like it was a love scene from a movie. I ran into another back alley and slid behind a dumpster. I pulled out the knife he always kept with me.

The monster walked leisurely towards me complaining, "I just wanted to have a little fun!" I almost stepped out and apologized for running away, but then I remembered the beautiful girl I had kissed had just turned into a flaming demon. She knew I was hiding behind the dumpster.

"Come out and we can have some fun!" she said excitedly, and once again I almost believed her. I looked back. There was nowhere to go. The alley was a dead end. I would have to fight the demon. I stepped out in front of the once beautiful girl.

"So you've decided to have some fun with me?" she asked happily.

"Not exactly."

I charged at her with my knife behind myself. I jumped up, meaning to stab the blade into her shoulder, but she knocked me out of the air.

"Playtime is OVER!" she yelled angrily.

She came at me quickly and I barely had to time dodge before her claws ripped through the air where I had been standing a moment before. I started sprinting out of the alleyway, but she was too quick. She gained on me within seconds and slashed at my back. This time, she didn't miss. I screamed in pain and fell to the ground. The demon sliced at him again, but Ethan rolled and sprinted away. My shoulder screamed at me to stop, fall to the ground, curl and up and cry, but I kept going. I decided that she might get lost if I ran through an office building or an apartment or...that's when I saw it. There was a huge parade going on two streets away.

I ran as fast as I could with an injured shoulder into the crowd. I reached a float and climbed on board. There was a small opening on top, probably meant for storage. I climbed in there and stayed for a long time. After what was probably another hour, the float came to a stop. I climbed out and ran into the nearest alley I could find. There was no sign of the demon or anyone else. I sighed, exhausted.

That was the closest I'd come with a monster. My shoulder still ached, and I felt dry blood on my back. I had no way to treat it. If I went to the emergency room, they'd ask questions I couldn't answer such as where do you live, who are your parents, blah blah blah. I could always shoplift some hydrogen peroxide, but pharmacies always had uptight security. I'd have to ignore the pain. I went back to my regular spot, in a rundown area of Brooklyn. I had a blanket and a worn out mattress there that I'd found thrown away and dragged back to a small abandoned shed that provided good cover. Inside my makeshift home, I had a small iron lockbox, in which I kept some band-aids, Neosporin, a little bit of cash, and other basic supplies. I also had a couple of books. I'd never been much of a reader before I was on the streets, but I had nothing better to do now.

This was the life of a poor, homeless thief... except, I was no ordinary thief. I wasn't sure what exactly was different about me, except my ADHD and Dyslexia. I seemed to attract the worst of New York. I'd never believed in monsters and demons before I came to New York. I'd been attacked constantly since I ran away from my peaceful town home in Iowa and came to New York. I dug a candle and a match out of my lockbox and lit the candle. I read by the light, just looking at words I'd read a million times, not really reading them, considering I'd pretty much memorized the entire book. I put the book down fairly quick and curled up in my mattress. I closed my eyes and began to dream.

_I was standing before a guy who was a little over twenty. He looked like a normal guy, except for his eyes. He wore jeans and a t-shirt, but his eyes glowed gold. _

"_Ethan Nakamura... you were the last one to pledge yourself to me. But you are by far the most loyal. You have fought bravely and I admire that. When we fight those fools from Camp Half-Blood, you will lead my army. I have seen you train and you are better than any of your fellow demigods."_

_I looked much older and more experienced. But most of all, I noticed the eye patch on my eye. Who was I fighting with, pirates?_

_The future me kneeled before him. "I would be honored, my Lord," I replied._

_The man smiled. "Good. Now go. Your mother has something for you, something that will help you in the battle. Go see her, and tell her we attack at the stroke of midnight."_

"_Yes sir."_

_My mother? I'd never known much about her, except what his father had told him, which was almost nothing. He'd only said that she was beautiful, and they were in love, but they could never be together. Perhaps in the future, he would meet her and the dream would come true._


	2. Demigod

Chapter Two

Demigod

I woke of my own accord, amazingly. I usually woke to a monster sneaking up on me, or some bum trying to take shelter in my shed. I peeked outside and found that the day had already begun. I stretched my legs, not really wanting to get up. But my stomach convinced me. After hiding my lockbox behind the shed where no one would look, I set out to find myself some breakfast.

I passed lots of hotdog vendors, but I'd hit them all before, and it's not wise to hit one vendor too frequently. There was a new stall set up just a few blocks from my hideout. I walked up to a store near the vendor and walked in. I looked at the seller from the window. He was a short man, also very round. He wouldn't be able to catch me. I walked back out and ordered a hotdog with ketchup and mustard. When he handed it to me, I ran. The man tried to catch him, but was wheezing by the time he'd gone a block, and stopped, bent over from exhaustion. I almost felt sorry for him. Then my stomach growled, and I walked a couple more blocks, sat down, and ate my hotdog.

From there, my day went as usual. I sat on the side of Grand Street, with a cup, thinking about nothing. Then I used the money I'd been given to buy myself a decent lunch. I usually went to a local café, just a few blocks from my shed. I was surprised, usually by now I'd be attacked by at least one monster. Good to have a break, I thought solemnly.

The worst part of being homeless: the loneliness. I had never had lots of friends before I ran away, but I was even lonelier now. Sometimes, I'd just sit for hours, imagining a better place. Anywhere would be better than the streets, except my old house.

I finished my meal and headed back to my shed. After lunch, I would always go back and make sure no one was there, and that my lockbox was safe. I approached his shed, and everything looked normal. First, I checked behind it to make sure my lockbox was still there. It was. Then I looked inside. Nothing had changed and everything was where it should be. I sat down on my mattress and counted the money I had left over. I laid down the remaining seventy five cents in frustration. I only had ten bucks all together, and I'd need a lot more than that to travel around. I was planning to go upstate somewhere and try to learn more about my past. My one desire was to find out who my mother is (or was, but I never wanted to think about that).

I was startled out of my thoughts when something pounded on my door. I jumped back and drew my knife. I kicked open my door and the girl who was standing in front of the door flew back. I ran over to her, worried I'd hurt her. I bent over her. I recognized her. She was the one who had turned into a demon and tried to kill me the other day. I leaped back, extending my dagger. She got up, rubbing her nose.

"You know, that really hurt," she said, snarling.

"Good. It was supposed to," I lied in response. Y really had no idea what was outside my door when I kicked it open.

She changed again, back into the demon with the flaming hair. She screamed and lunged at him. I dodged out of the path of her claws and counter attacked, stabbing her in the shoulder, and I thought I'd got her. But I'd just angered her. I stood my ground a couple of yards away, still remembering how I'd been cut the previous day. We circled for a while, until my back faced his my. I cursed to myself. I was trapped.

There was no way I was going to survive this one. I'm going to die, I thought. But then I heard feet pounding towards me, not the demon, something else. I was afraid that it would be more monsters, but the demon swung around, and dodged a dagger to the face. A dark haired girl now stood between me and the demon. She held two daggers, but they looked far superior to my weapon. Unlike mine, they looked like they should actually be used for combat, instead of cooking. She backed up to me, and flipped one backwards, and for a minute, he thought she was going to throw it at the demon, but she handed it to me.

"This might be a little more useful than your butter knife," said the girl, still facing the monster. I took the dagger by the hilt, scowling. I hated getting help from others.

The demon charged and we both dodged, the girl slashing at the monster with her dagger. It wasn't a very deep cut at all. In fact, it only penetrated a few inches. But the demon exploded into a pile of dust.

"Well that's... convenient," I said skeptically, staring at the dust.

"Mhm." She turned to face me. She had dark brown hair and big, beautiful, brown eyes. She wore the same kind of clothes as me. She probably lived like me too.

"Sabrina," she said smiling, extending her hand to me. I shook.

"Ethan. Here's your dagger back. Thanks." She shook her head.

"Keep it. You could use a better weapon. Steel won't kill anything."

"Yeah... I noticed. What's it made of anyway?"

She frowned, like I should know exactly what it was made of.

"Celestial Bronze, duh."

"Oh. Well, thanks for the help." I started to walk away.

She ran in front of me. "Are you kidding me?"

"What?"

"You're the first demigod I've seen in New York, I kill a monster for you, and you say 'Thanks for the help'!"

What did she call me?

"Wait, what? What's a demigod?"

She looked at me like I'd just asked what color a brown bear was.

"Seriously?" Now she seemed worried.

"Look, whatever, or whoever you think I am, I'm not."

"Trust me, you are."

She sighed. Neither of us talked for a minute. She seemed to be thinking hard.

I was almost convinced she had turned to stone when she looked up at me.

"Well, where to begin. Let me guess. You've had trouble in schools. You ran away from home. You know almost nothing about one of your parents. Freaky shit always happens to you with no explanation. You're constantly attacked by creatures of Greek myth. You have ADHD and Dyslexia."

I stared at her, dumbfounded. She'd pretty much just summed up my entire life. It was true. I'd skipped from school to school, because of accident after accident. At least, I thought they were accidents. The teachers weren't so convinced.

"How did you...?"

"Because I was the same."

"You were?"

"Yeah. You want to know why? You're a demigod. Half human, half god. I'm one too."

"God? As in... Passion of the Christ, Holy Trinity, God?"

"No. Like Greek gods. Zeus, Poseidon, Hades..."

"So... what your telling me is that... my mom, who I know nothing about... Is a god? A Greek god?"

"Yeah... I know... it's a bomb shell."

Great. The first pretty girl I'd talked to in New York that hadn't tried to kill me has turned out to be a complete psycho. I couldn't be half... god. It was impossible. If I was half god, wouldn't I be like... impossible to kill, or hurt for that matter?

"Right," I said. "You sure you're okay... not... high or anything?"

She sighed. "Look, I know it's a lot to take in. But how else would you explain how I know everything about you? All the stuff that's happened to you, what about that. The Empousa that attacked you. Explain that."

"Empousa?"

"The she-demon." She laughed quietly, as if it was an old joke, not really funny anymore. "Let me guess, you saw her from a distance, had to get a closer look, then you went somewhere quiet. Then she changed and attacked you."

My cheeks glowed bright red. "Um, yeah."

She smiled. She had a wonderful smile. Not forced, but yet not entirely by her will. It was amazing that she managed to look so pretty when she lived on the street and got attacked by monsters constantly.

"Well. I'm exhausted, what about you?"

"Uh, yeah... but I don't have any room in my shed for..."

"Oh, don't worry. I have a hotel room."

My head snapped up. "Really?"

"Yeah, at the Ritz-Carlton, near Central Park."

My jaw hung open. "You mean... are you like... rich or something?"

She laughed again, her beautiful, quiet laugh. "Nope. I have my ways. You coming or not?"

I scrambled to my feet.

We walked for awhile, talking about our pasts on the way.

Sabrina had grown up in Vermont, with her dad. He beat her every day, and her step mom didn't care. She might have never joined it with it, but she encouraged it all the same. She'd run away when she was twelve, and she'd been in the New York- Jersey area for years. I was impressed, I'd only been in New York a few months, and I'd been close to dead dozens of times. She'd done the same as me for a couple of months, living in abandoned warehouses, sheds, and sometimes just out in the open. She also fought with a regular steel knife and had to run from monsters. But after about three months as a runaway, a strange woman, who never shared anything about herself, came to her and taught her for a week. She only came to her at night. The woman gave her the two knives, and she taught her some survival tips. Sabrina had asked many times who she was, but she never told her. One day, when she woke up, the woman was gone, and hadn't been seen since. After that, she could take on monsters, and she stayed in five star hotels instead of abandoned sheds, park benches, and so on.

"What about you?" She asked.

"Well... my life at home didn't suck quite as much as yours. I grew up in Iowa, just me and my dad, no mom, no step-mom, no dad's girlfriends... he didn't beat me that often... but he just ignored me. He sent me to shitty schools, made me walk ten miles to and from school every day. I never had many friends, because of my ADHD and Dyslexia. People avoided me like I was some kind of trouble magnet... which I guess I was. In first grade, I accidentally burned down the school gym. Every year I switched schools, every year I got kicked out. Eventually, my dad took me out of school in seventh grade." Ethan looked up. "I never knew my mom..."

Sabrina looked sad and concerned. "You know, sometimes being neglected can be just as bad as being beaten."

"I guess so..."

We reached the hotel, and together we walked in the lobby.

The minute the clerk saw them, he yelled, "Hey! Get out of here before I kick you out! Sabrina just snapped her fingers and said, "We have a room, a penthouse suite up on the top floor. I come here every day, remember?"

We're fucked now, I thought.

The clerk looked confused for a moment, but then smiled

"Oh... yeah... good to see you again! Have a nice night!"

I stared at him.

Sabrina smiled back and went in the elevator, and I followed her in.

"How did you do that?"

"It was one of the tricks that the woman who gave me my knives taught me. It's called manipulating the Mist. That's what keeps mortals from seeing all the Greek monsters and stuff."

That explained why no one tried to help when the Empousa had been chasing me.

We rode the rest of the way in silence. When we reached the top and the doors opened, Ethan was stunned. They had the whole floor. A penthouse suite. Three rooms, each with a flat screen TV, an Xbox 360, and hundreds of channels. Each room had two, huge beds, big enough for three people to sleep comfortably in each one.

"This is where I've been staying for the past few weeks. Pretty awesome, huh?"

"Yeah. Very awesome."

When Sabrina finished showing me the whole suite, she went back to one of the doors that lead to a room.

"I'm tired. See you in the morning; you can have your choice of the other bedrooms."

"Night."

She opened the door and went in.

I went to the room opposite Sabrina's and laid down on the bed. I didn't realize I'd been so tired. I closed my eyes and dreamed again.

_I stood before a golden coffin, with a kid a couple of years younger than me standing a few feet away from me._

"_Ethan, don't listen to them. Help me destroy it," he said pleadingly._

"_I told you not to spare me, Percy. 'An eye for an eye'. You ever hear that saying? I learned what it means the hard way- when I discovered my godly parent. I'm the child of Nemesis, Goddess of Revenge. And this is what I was made to do."_

_I turned back to the coffin._

"_I renounce the gods! What have they ever done for me? I will see them destroyed. I will serve Kronos."_

_The ground around me shook, and a wisp of blue light went from my feet drifted towards the coffin and began to shine. It dropped into the sarcophagus. _

_The same man I'd seen in my last dream sat up in the coffin. The strange dog looking things that I hadn't noticed before gave him his weapon, a scythe. He jumped out of the coffin with amazing speed. _

"_This body has been well prepared... don't you think so, Percy Jackson?"_

_I fell to the ground, terrified._

_The boy charged at him and attacked. His blade deflected off of him like a bouncy ball. With a slight movement of his hand, the boy flew back, into a pillar. He then walked over and loomed over him. _

_I looked at him, but not with pity, or sadness, or even fear. But hate. The man with the scythe smiled, and cut downward._


	3. The Manticore

Chapter Three

The Manticore

I awoke fast, sweating. I sat up, looking around the room for the man with the scythe. He wasn't there. Then I remembered he'd been in a different room. Not the penthouse I was in now. It had been a dream. I sighed, and glanced at the clock. It was just after 5 A.M. Falling back on my pillow, I tried falling asleep again, with no avail.

I laid there for hours until I heard soft knock on my door.

"Yeah?"

"Can I come in?" Came Sabrina's voice, sweet as an angel.

I looked at myself. I was wearing torn up jean and a ratty old t-shirt. I couldn't change out of that, I had no other clothes.

"Sure," I responded, knowing I couldn't look better or worse than I already did.

She came in wearing fresh clothes, new jeans and a nice blouse.

"How did you... where did you get those clothes?"

"The hotel provides new clothes every day. Yours are by the TV in the main room."

"Ok..."

I found my new clothes by the on the couch by the TV. There was a fresh pair of jeans, and a New York Yankees t-shirt. I went back in to my room to put them on, making sure I carried my knife with me. When I came back out, Sabrina was waiting for me by the door.

"Come on, we're going to lunch."

We left the hotel together, walking down the street to a café a couple of blocks away.

I still had questions, about demigods, Sabrina's past, the mysterious woman who had visited her, and tons of other things.

"So... when did you run away?" I asked

She thought for a bit, like she had forgotten.

"A couple of months after my twelfth birthday. And you?"

I was surprised. I'd only been in New York a couple of months, and I was reaching my breaking point with all the monster attacks and constantly having to steal for a living.

"Just a few months ago... How did you survive so long?"

"Well, for the first few months, I didn't really know where I was going. I just packed some things in a bag and hopped on the first bus I saw. It took me all the way to West Virginia. Then I just walked for a few weeks. I wasn't attacked until I reached the Pennsylvania area. After that, I got another bus to New York. It sounded like a good idea at the time. But once I got here, I was attacked constantly. At first, I lived like you did, in abandoned buildings, sheds, anything I could find."

Something dark flashed in her eyes, and she seemed to be done talking. We reached the café and walked in. The interior was warm and friendly, unlike a lot of the places in the city. The walls were painted a light green, and the rest of the place was mostly green and white. At the counter, there was an old, kind-looking lady. We went up to the counter and ordered. I got a club sandwich and Sabrina got a salad. We sat down at one of the tables and ate our food. It was wonderful. The old lady who worked here obviously spent a lot of time on her food.

"You should probably go get the rest of your stuff from your shed," said Sabrina, after we had finished eating. I had forgotten about the shed. I guess when things start to go your way, the crappy things that happened in your past don't seem to matter as much. I made my way through alleys and over fences to shed that I had called home just the day before. I went inside, and thankfully, all of my stuff was still just as I left it.

I grabbed my old green backpack from under the mattress and filled it with my books, my lockbox, and the celestial bronze dagger that Sabrina had given me. I stepped outside and looked at the only home I'd had since I ran away, and I knew I'd never see it again. Whatever happened now, it would all be better than living by myself in a shed. Because now I had a friend. I wasn't alone anymore.

We started walking back to the Ritz-Carlton, leaving my shed behind. I hoped it would help someone else, the way it had helped me. Without it, I would have had to sleep out in the open, in parks, on streets, and in alleys. The monster attacks definitely would have been more frequent if I didn't have it.

I was jolted from my thoughts by a shove from Sabrina, who started pushing me down an alley. She crouched behind a dumpster, and I followed her lead.

"What are doing?" I protested

"Shhhh!"

I looked past her at the street. Two ugly looking old women were starting to walk down the alley. I quickly unzipped my backpack and took out my dagger, then put my backpack back over my shoulders. I inspected the women again. They had dark, gray skin and all of their skin seemed to droop and hang off of their bodies. They had gray wings on their backs, folded in.

"What the hell?" I whispered quietly. But apparently not quiet enough. The two old hags hissed and knocked the dumpster aside. Sabrina lunged at the first one with her dagger, but it flew up into the air, and came back down at her. She barely managed to dodge her claws before she crashed into the ground. The second hag lunged at me and I jumped to the side. She attacked with her claws, but I managed to block them with my dagger. She kept attacking faster and faster, not stopping to take a breath, or anything that might interfere with her killing me. She was going to beat me. I just knew it.

I'd like to tell you that I came up with some brilliant plan to beat her, like a light bulb switched on in my head. Nope. Sabrina had already killed the hag attacking her, and while the one attacking me was distracted, she ran up behind it and planted her dagger in the back of its neck. It exploded in to a cloud of dust, and I was left standing there looking like an idiot.

"Thanks," I mumbled glumly.

"Don't mention it," she replied.

Sabrina tucked her dagger into the back of her jeans, and I did the same, deciding not the make the same mistake of having to retrieve it from his backpack whenever a monster attacked.

"Let's drop your stuff off at the hotel, then we could go to the concierge and see what kind of funs things there are to do in New York," said Sabrina. My jaw dropped. Ten seconds ago, we had been fighting for our lives, now Sabrina was acting like we were on vacation. She saw my face and laughed.

"What, there's not much else to do when you're not fighting monsters. We might as well have fun."

I shrugged. My dad had never taken me on vacation. The only time I'd been out of Iowa before I ran away was when we went to Missouri so my dad could get drunk with his old college buddies.

"Fun sounds good," I agreed.

We made it back to the Ritz-Carlton without further attacks. After dropping off my backpack in the penthouse, we went back down to the lobby and found the concierge desk. We looked through the book at different activities around the city, and decided to take a boat out to Liberty Island and see the Statue of Liberty. We took a cab from the hotel to the boat dock, and when we got there, we had to buy our tickets and catch the boat. We made it on with just seconds to spare. The boat was small, two levels, and just about forty feet long. We found seats towards the back. I tried to enjoy the boat ride, but I was still thinking about the attack. I knew that no matter what, we would always be attacked by monsters, and I couldn't keep fighting for the rest of my life. Sometime, there would be too many monsters, and it would be over.

We reached the island, and got off together. Despite the earlier attack, I couldn't help but revel at the beauty of the scene around me. There were no houses, and just a couple of buildings. The path we took from the dock was surrounded by grass and trees, and birds flew everywhere. It was so unlike the rest of New York City. It was hard to believe that this island was just off the coast of one of the most congested cities in the world. The statue was set on a star-shaped platform and when I looked up at the statue my neck ached from the angle. We climbed the stairs in front of the statue and walked all the way around, inspecting every side of it. I wanted to go in so badly, but we couldn't.

After a half hour of walking around the island, Sabrina and I sat down on a bench to take a rest. Across from us sat three old ladies sowing a giant glove. It was the biggest glove I had ever seen. It was probably about three feet long, and two feet wide. I highly doubted it would fit anything. The lady on the far left took a golden string out of her bag and handed it to her friend on the right end. The lady in the middle took out a pair of scissors. She looked up at me. I saw myself with Sabrina running by a tree with a man... no, not a man. Half of a man. He was mostly human from the waist up, except for the horns on his head. And from the waist down, he was a goat, hooves and all. Then I saw myself dressed in armor, wielding a sword and a shield. I stood before the same man I had seen in my dream, the one with the scythe. Then I saw myself in the same armor, in a huge throne room, with my sword raised against the man with the scythe. I was cut out of the strange premonition just in time to see the middle woman cut the string. It gave me a strange, eerie feeling, like something dark had just been set in stone.

I looked over at Sabrina, but she hadn't noticed any of it. She looked at her watch and realized what time it was.

"Crap, the boat leaves in five minutes!" She exclaimed, already standing up from the bench.

We had to run to catch the boat, but we did, once again, with seconds to spare. We sat in the middle of the boat, across from a man who looked to be about fifty, and very fit. He had gray hair, and looked a lot like the stereotypical army general. He was wearing black aviators and a green leather jacket. He looked suspicious, but didn't do anything out of the ordinary on the way back to the city.

When the boat landed, Sabrina and I got off and started walking away when we heard a voice from behind us.

"Hey, kids. You've been causing some trouble. My friends and I don't appreciate it. Those were some valuable allies you killed."

I knew who it was before I turned around. It was the army general from the boat. He spoke with a strange accent, like French, but something was different. I couldn't tell what it was. Sabrina and I both took our daggers out of the backs of our jeans. He sniffed the air.

"Hm... the girl's aura is extremely powerful... but you, boy, no... nothing special."

Something flicked behind his back and I felt a sharp pain in my thigh. I looked down and saw some kind of black spike sticking out of my leg. There was blood all around it. Sabrina charged it, taking the attention off of me. I sank to the ground and got another look at the monster. He had a tail behind his back, long and scorpion-like. It had spikes like the one in my leg all over it.

Sabrina was holding her own well, dodging and blocking the monsters spikes. She had even gotten a few blows into the monster. But I could tell she was tiring, and she couldn't win. The monster was fast and accurate, and wasn't even breaking a sweat. Just at the nick of time, a black Dodge Charger, with all tinted dark windows and a sweet spoiler on the back end, screeched to a stop ten feet from us. The monster looked up, distracted, and that gave Sabrina a chance to get another stab into him. He screamed in fury as he pushed her off. The door to the car opened and I was surprised to see the half-goat, half-man that I had seen in my premonition on the island.

"Get in! Quick!" he yelled.

I didn't have time to question whether or not it was a good idea to get inside of a stranger's car. Anything could be better than the monster we were facing. I opened the back door, sliding in, right before Sabrina, who slammed the door shut. The goat man got in the driver seat and put the pedal to the metal. I felt two more spikes slam into the car before he faded from the distance.

"Who are you?" I asked the driver.

"My name's Grant. I've been watching you for a few days. A couple of Keres, I knew you could handle, but a Manticore? No way."

"Manticore?" I asked stupidly.

"The thing that just attacked you..."

He looked back and seemed to notice the spike in my leg for the first time.

"Shit!" He reached into the center compartment and brought out squares of something... it looked good.

"Eat a couple of these," he said. "It'll help the pain."

We sped along the road, swerving between cars and on sidewalks.

"Could you slow down a bit?" I asked nauseously.

"Can't risk it catching up to us, sorry."

We reached a valley that extended a long way, and he parked the car on the curb.

"Hurry up!" he yelled, and he started to run towards a large pine tree that stood just outside the valley. I recognized the scene from my premonition on the island.

I followed him, limping still because of the spike. Sabrina was close after me. I heard a yell from behind me and a spike whizzed over my head. I didn't have time to look back and see the Manticore. I tried running faster, but I didn't see anything close by except the pine tree and that sure wasn't going to stop the monster. For some reason, once Grant passed the pine tree, he stopped and doubled over, tired.

"What the hell are you doing? Keep going!" I yelled at him.

"He can't pass the barriers, you're safe once you get by the tree!" he shouted back.

I crossed by the tree at the same time as Sabrina, and the Manticore stopped just short of the tree. He tried to throw a spike at Sabrina, but it dissolved in mid-air when it tried to cross the path of the tree. He growled and ran off.

Grant sighed.

"Well, that's as good a welcome as any. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood."


	4. Camp HalfBlood

Chapter Four

Camp Half-Blood

Damn. The gods sure did get busy quite a bit. There were at least ninety campers. There was plenty to do at Camp Half-Blood. There was a canoe lake, archery range, pegasus (yep, flying horses.) stables, sword arena, strawberry fields, and so much more. There were twelve cabins, all arranged in a U shape around the dining pavilion. Just east of the cabins was the canoe lake, then the Amphitheater. To the west was the armory, the sword arena and the stables. There were courts to the south of the cabins, and a large, three or four story barn house.

I could go on for hours, but I've got a story to tell. We walked to the big barn house and were met by a man with a light brown beard and shabby hair. Well, not completely a man. A centaur I guess. I was hardly surprised.

He smiled as we approached. "I see you were successful, Grant."

"Yes sir. But I have bad news. There's a manticore in the city."

His pleased expression changed to one of concern.

"This isn't good. They've never been this close to camp before."

His face looked like he'd said too much.

"We'll talk more of this later."

"I am Chiron," he said. It seemed like he'd said that thousands of times before, like a rehearsed line.

"I'm Sabrina, this is Ethan." It was the first time she'd spoken since they left the battle with the manticore.

"Do either of you know your godly parent?"

We shook our heads.

"All right. Grant, take them to the Hermes cabin tell Connor and Travis they're undetermined."

They just throw all the kids who don't know who their godly parent is into the Hermes cabin? That's not exactly fair...

We followed Grant to a regular looking cabin and went in. There were tons of bunks squished together and sleeping bags littered the floor. There were two guys in the cabin that looked about sixteen. They had blond hair, blue eyes, and looked exactly alike. They were putting what looked like dynamite in several cracks in a car engine.

Grant cleared his throat. One of the brothers dropped a stick of dynamite and fell backward.

"Oh... Grant. It's just you. Thank the gods."

"This is Ethan and Sabrina. Both undetermined. Do what you do to get them settled in, ok?"

The taller brother nodded. The shorter one was still working on the engine, totally oblivious of what was going on.

"I'm Travis, he's Connor," said the taller one, jerking his thumb towards his brother. "I'll go, um... buy some things for you from the camp store," he said with a mischievous smile.

Connor stood up and came over to them. He grinned and said, "He means steal. We don't buy jack shit. Well..." He looked around on the ground and found two empty spots. "You can put your stuff there when Travis comes back," he said pointing at the spots.

Travis came back in the door with two black sleeping bags, two pillows, and a pair of toiletry bag. We took them and put them down at our places.

The door burst open and about twenty kids came piling in. They were all chatting loudly and most of them were covered in mud and dirt.

"Hermes cabin, fall in!" ordered Travis. Apparently he was quite as powerful as he thought. A few of the kids fell silent and got in line, but most kept chatting.

"SHUT UP!" yelled Connor.

The rest of the campers fell silent and stood in line.

"We've got two new campers today. This is Ethan and Sabrina. Undetermined. Now, let's go eat!"

Quite the introduction.

Sabrina and I followed example and got in line behind the rest of the campers. We walked in a line to the dining pavilion where we sat down at three picnic tables next to each other so that everyone fit.

The other cabins were a lot smaller in numbers. The largest one I saw besides Hermes was a bunch of tough-looking kids sitting two tables away.

Nymph-like creatures floated in from nowhere and set food down in front of us, along with empty goblets.

The kid next to me said "Just say what you want and that's what you get in the goblet."

Everyone stood up and got in lines by the braziers. They were offering part of their meals to the gods. We did the same. It was my turn, and I scooped off part of the pepperoni pizza into the brazier, and in my head prayed to whoever my mother was. We sat down and ate. I took another look at the other cabins.

One table had just one kid sitting at it. He had black hair and green eyes, and was pretty muscular. The next table was all blond kids with gray eyes. One girl in particular stood out to him. She had a perfect tan and was taller than your average girl. The next table was just two boys, both a little plump and black haired. After that, there was the tough-looking cabin, then a few more cabins with kids that all looked different.

I asked the goblet for a virgin pina-colada. And whattaya know? The food was great and I talked with Sabrina a few other kids from my cabin. After the meal, we went to the camp fire and sang some songs, though I didn't know any. By the time we were done, it was at least ten, so we went back to our cabins and got in bed. Maybe this could be my first real home. Everything in my life had been so temporary before this, but maybe now something could be here to stay.

For the first time in years, I had no nightmares.


	5. Training

Hey guys, just to clear things up, this story takes place right before the Sea of Monsters. Ethan and Sabrina are sixteen. Luke's already gone bad, that's why Connor and Travis are the Hermes counselors. Disclaimer: I don't own Ethan, Chiron or anyone else in this story so far, except Sabrina.

And I also realized that my chapters were painfully long, so I'm going to be cutting them down, starting with the last one. You should expect 10-12 chapters total in this fan fic.

Cheers.

-Rixerx64

Chapter Five

Mr. D

Connor's loud yell woke me from my peaceful sleep.

"Alright, Hermes! Get up! In line! Time for breakfast!"

I grumbled and lifted myself out of my sleeping bag. I got to the back of the line. Again. And it didn't help that I was starving. We filed out of the cabin and marched to the dining pavilion. The nymphs floated in with platters of pancakes and waffles, steaming and delicious looking. The goblets appeared and I asked for apple juice.

After breakfast, Chiron called Sabrina and I over and gave us our schedules. First up for me was archery. I'd never shot an arrow in my life. I reached the archery range right behind Chiron and a bunch of other kids from different cabins. After a brief introduction to archery "for those of us who are not acquainted with the skill", (Aka, me) he told us to get started.

I picked up a bow, ten arrows, and some kind of leather strap that went around your forearm. I was at target five. I put the arrow on the string and pulled back. I tried to aim right above the bullseye. I took a deep breath and fired the arrow. It flew beautifully straight... for the first inch. The back of the arrow started to go over the top of it and It landed about five feet to the front of me and another two feet to the left. The rest of my arrows had about the same effect.

Chiron clip clopped to my other side, followed by a rather rotund man with curly black hair and purple eyes.

"Well, we can cross Apollo off the list," said the man, chuckling.

Chiron looked annoyed. "Ethan, this is Mr. D, Camp Director."

"What list?" I asked.

"The list of possible godly parents for you and your little friend..." said the man with the purple eyes.

I didn't like this guy's attitude.

"Anyways," interrupted Chiron. "Mr. D is erm... Well, Mr. D, would you like to explain?"

"Dionysus, god of wine, at your service."

I raised an eyebrow, but so many weird things had happened recently that it hardly surprised me that there was an actual god here. Still, he was in thousands of tales and legends. I should feel honored, but honestly, I wasn't that excited.

"Pleasure..."

"Hmph," grunted the god.

"You should be getting to riding lessons, Ethan," said Chiron, eyeing Mr. D.

The stables were about a half mile from the archery range. I jogged the whole way because I knew I was running late. I arrived there and most of kids were already on their pegasi. As I approached, a really cute girl with curly black hair turned towards me. And she was REALLY cute. She looked about my age...

She smiled and extended her hand "I'm Silena, daughter of Aphrodite! You must be Ethan."

Ah, that explains the looks...

"Yeah..." I couldn't think of much else to say, but I shook her hand.

"Well, your pegasus is over there. Her name is Sassu."

I walked over to Sassu and patted her neck. Then I climbed on board. Silena came up to my side.

"Since this is your first time, I'll tell Sassu to take it easy and just fly around a bit."

"Thanks."

"No problem." She patted my pegasus' neck a spoke a few words into her ear. She shook her head in acknowledgement.

The kid I'd seen sitting alone at his table at dinner last night shouted "Hiyaah!" and he and his pegasus flew into the sky.

"Um... fly?" I tested.

Silena burst into a fit of giggles. "Try lightly kicking her sides, smarts." My face grew red, but I did what she had instructed. Sassu immediately started galloping towards a cliff bout fifty yards away. She fluttered her wings, and as she leaped off the cliff, she began to soar high and circle the entire camp.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHH!" I yelled. I was shaking. I'd never been this high up before, and it was really freaking me out. I was trying as hard as I could to hold on to the reins, but it wasn't working out too well.

After struggling with them for a few minutes, I lost my grip and fell off Sassu's back, tumbling towards the earth. I was sure I was going to die, until a hand gripped mine. Good thing I was smart enough to grab the hand back.

It was Silena, and she was laughing. She steered her pegasus towards the ground. They landed nice and soft on the ground, but of course, I got dragged ten feet until we stopped.

"Next time, don't hold on so tightly. Keep a loose hold on the reins, otherwise, you'll freak her out."

I grumbled a quick thank you.

After that, I decided to stay firmly on the ground.

The rest of the day went well enough.

I had arts and crafts after riding, and nothing horrible happened there. Then I had blacksmithing with a big African-American kid named Beckendorf. I made a pretty sweet battleaxe, but apparently I didn't fasten it into the wood very well, because when I swung it around, the head came off and impaled itself in the wood a foot from Beckendorf's head.

After that was lunch, then sword fighting which I was decent at, and then I had free time, in which I went back to the cabin and took a nap.

Then we had a camp game of volleyball and puppet show put on by Connor and Travis, which turned out to just be a half hour of laughing and horrible acting.

Dinner came around, and I was beat. We had sing a longs again, and then bedtime. The day went by so fast; I hardly remembered some of it.

I slept well enough until the nightmares hit me. Yep, they're back.

_I was running through some kind of corridor, but then it ended in a dead end. I was panting heavily , and I heard lots of footsteps coming from behind me. I spun around, sword at the ready, and tons of snake-ladies came slithering in. They kind of looked like women, but they had trunks instead of legs and their skin was all green and scaly. Some of them carried spears, others swords and knives._

"_Contact Lord Kronosss," one of them hissed. "I thhhhink we have found our lassst recruit..."_

I broke out of the sleep in a sweat. It was still dark. No one was up. I looked over at Sabrina's spot. But she wasn't there. I slowly got up and snuck out the front door.

I found Sabrina sitting by the canoe lake.

"You okay?" I asked when I got next to her.

She looked up at me, not surprised I was out here. "Yeah, I guess I'm just a night person."

I sighed. "Me too."

It was true, I favored the dark of the night over the light of day.

"I just wish things would be simpler," she said. "I wish my mom would just tell me who she is."

"Mine too."

She sighed. "You should get some sleep. Long day tomorrow."

I chuckled a little bit. "Aren't they all?"

She smiled for the first time in a while.

"They are now."


End file.
